Forum:Development Time!
Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 04:36, September 19, 2012 (UTC) Ok, I think it's time to get this mod started soon! no rush- I'll get the concepts for the following before we start *T4 Labs, *Strategy Centers, *Superweapons, *Drone Towers *Allied Radar and Hangar designs VolteMetalic (talk) 15:10, September 24, 2012 (UTC): Good to hear :) And little off-topic, why there arent any GAP techs for Allies? Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 22:50, September 25, 2012 (UTC)Oh, that was the last thing I wanted to mention; I reckon the Allied T4 Lab should itself house the GAP generator (like the Soviet Lab houses the main reactor), and contain an upgrade to improve resource intake or reducing vehicle cost a little (like the way the Soviets upgrade the barracks to be cloning vats). VolteMetalic (talk) 08:13, September 28, 2012 (UTC): Well, giving power to non-combatant building is good, but giving active defense to it? Its little impractical. But the upgrade for factory to reduce the price is good idea. Starting Process Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 04:36, September 19, 2012 (UTC) I figure the best approach is to start up a Red Alert Zero mod section on ModDB and advertise for positions (will need some advice on which in particular, aside from obvious like getting as many programmers, modellers, animators, texture artists as we can (on top of seeing as much as we can do ourselves). And if we get positions, we'll simply get separate teams to write the mod code and just use regular units (or even low-poy placeholder units) while we get to work on the models and textures simultanously- gradually replacing the placeholders with the proper units. VolteMetalic (talk) 15:10, September 24, 2012 (UTC):To make a mod on ModDb, there are needed images of the work made for the mod; concept arts, mdoels, in-game shots. Or videos. Simply something to see the mod really "is". Placeholder models, you say? That would be quite easy to make for me :) The mod will work, and than just newer, more detailed and proper models will be given to these units. I like it. Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 22:55, September 25, 2012 (UTC) Awesome! In that case I will get the site started with some of my concept art pieces for some initial interest and some kind of recruitment ad. The big issue is how to give instructions to additional members and share the files around- there is the possibility of using skype, though I think a non-real-time forum is much better. VolteMetalic (talk) 08:13, September 28, 2012 (UTC): That depends on. For discussions Skype is better, but when you have time, forum is also good choice. Sequential design Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 04:36, September 19, 2012 (UTC) I reckon the best way to get this mod out is to simply only put out the very basics first, playtest and balance them, then add more in on top. First Sequence So for the first sequqnece; *no nations or national units, *no Tier 4 or upgrades, *Most special abilities will not be included *several support units will be (temporarily) cut out of the mod at first- such as the Medic and Commisar, the Pioneer Airship, possibly the gunships. That way we can playtest some of the most basic features to make sure they work nicely, and add on abilities based on feedback/decide if X unit needs the ability we had planned, or something stronger/weaker. Mainly we want to see if the battle units and sneak-attack units are well enough balanced to be equally useful. Second Sequence Once we've got a nice balance for the basic units, we can start putting the other units into the mix, based on feedback and playtesting. So if our existing units on either side all explicitly fail to hold up certain standards, we can augment our extra units more specifically to address them. At this point we can start bringing in nations, Tier 4, Upgrades and Special abilities, according to what players need! Thoughts? VolteMetalic (talk) 15:10, September 24, 2012 (UTC): For both sequences I agree. Just that some of the support untis will be cut off. The gunships are quite essential at least. Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 22:57, September 25, 2012 (UTC) No problem; I think for some of the essential units they should be added in after a few other essentials' functions and balances are clearly defined- but you're probably right that we can add them in straight away ;) VolteMetalic (talk) 08:13, September 28, 2012 (UTC): Without them, the combat without close aerial support will be boring :D Sort of. Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 10:17, September 28, 2012 (UTC) Good point! Anyway, letting you know I have made a recruitment thread in ModDB (mainly calling for a programmer, as that is what we need to get this thing going!- of course, if you know one who is interested let me know)! (If that fails and we don't get any coders we may have to consider switching to CNC3's engine and omitting the navy part) ALSO, I have plugged in some stats we could give the units (though keep in mind this factors the RA2 armor types, so we'd have to improvise a bit) So, I reckon for first sequence should use ALL of the following units, assuming the stats I have given them on the unit pages. Note that some of the units will have their secondaries omitted at this stage so we can see how they fare in playtesting. (you don't have to read through it all now- it may take a short while before we get a programmer to show this to). UNITS WITH SECONDARIES OMITTED (for playtesting) *Engineer- *Dog- *Supply Truck- for now, just a truck, nothing else. *Marine- *Flak Trooper *Tesla Trooper- *Pariah *Chrono-Legionairre- depends on what the programmer can do I guess. *Kodiak Tank- *Mauler Tank *MARS/MRLS- *V5 Cruise Missile Launcher (we can try giving it targetable cruise missiles at first, most likely we can improvise an EMP non-targetable missile) *Amphibious Transports *Allied Destroyer *Allied Avenger/Aegis *Allied Drone Carrier *Soviet Sea Reaper *Soviet Typhoon *Soviet Dreadnaught (ditto to V5- we can try giving it targetable cruise missiles at first and customize its other attack accordingly) UNITS WITH SECONDARY ABILITIES INCLUDED *Scout- (deploys into camo-observation position with ROF bonus aura to friendly soldiers) *Spy-- (sneak out for Allies, and cyanide dart for Soviets) *Conscript (Molotovs) *Guardian Missile Trooper- switches pistol/missile launcher *SkySec- (caltrups that leave patches of ground that slow ground enemies) *JAger- (switch sniper mode or commando mode) *PsiCorps- (lets try the 'chaos shockwave'). *FlameBot- drake self-destruct (spins fire around, explodes as fuel air bomb) *Terror Drone- (spider-hole) *Flak Raider (ejects occupants) *Wildcat IFV- eject occupant *Sonic Tank (secondary is suppressor beam that freezes units and force-evacuates structures) *Blackhawk (toggles between airborne or grounded modes- when going from airborne into grounded mode with infantry, it automatically ejects them when it lands). *Behemoth Tank (name replaces Apocalypse), volley of AA missiles. *Kirov- (lockdown raygun). *Comanche (switches to non-missile stealth mode) *Hind/Hunchback (switches to grounded mode and ejects infantry) *MiG and StrikeFighter- Switches flight mode (see below). Switching modes forces the unit to return to base either way to switch its armaments. Note that I've been playing around with the gunships and fighters in Red Alert 3 and I quite like them. So for now, we can assume that the gunships work pretty much like the Twinblade does. The Fighters on the other hand I had an excellent idea; their special ability is to simply switch between acting like a Red Alert 2 harrier or a Red Alert 3 aircraft in defense-mode. While in Harrier mode, the unit can move freely around the map, BUT will ALWAYS return to base by itself when it has no move orders- and cannot hover in the air. THerefore, 'return to base' is now an automatic feature. 'Patrol mode' is where the unit will patrol around any friendly target structure or ship, but cannot move independently on the map without the structure or ship moving there, and will intercept enemy aircraft. Unlike in Red Alert 3, the aircraft is never stationary when attacking, and will be strafing the target. However, switching its attack modes will ALWAYS call the unit back to base so it can be refitted with its bombs or AA missile pods. VolteMetalic (talk) 12:00, September 29, 2012 (UTC): I am not sure for the fighters. That they will be constantly on move is good thing, but this switching... could be problematic. But other than that its really interesting :) And it was you who "befriended" me on ModDb? Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 01:04, September 30, 2012 (UTC) No probs we can see what happens with the jets! And on ModDB, I'm Hazza-the-Fox; I probably would have done it a while ago but since switching computers I haven't logged in for a while (only did it yesterday) VolteMetalic (talk) 09:30, September 30, 2012 (UTC): Yeah, I realized that too. It was someone else, someone who joined ModDb just yesterday and vefriended most of ZH modders :) It makes me kinda proud he added me there :D And why did you renamed Raptor into Strike Fighter? Out of curiosity. Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 23:17, September 30, 2012 (UTC) Ah- could have sworn I friended you earlier- fixed; By the way, I may need you to help me find a coder, not many people are biting :/ Strike Fighter I renamed because the Allied Aircraft in question was primarily an air-to-surface and bomber aircraft, and distinctly weaker in air-to-air than the Soviet MiG/interceptor. Naming it after an air-superiority fighter wasn't quite appropriate (at the time I was grasping at Generals names) :P VolteMetalic (talk) 09:16, October 1, 2012 (UTC): Well, one of my friends surprised me when he told he would help with textures. Surprised he knew about RAZ :P But I may try someone who may be a "willing" coder :) Hehehe :D And you think Raptor in Generals was also just for air-superiority? :D It was also shooting ground targets :D But we cna name it "Raven" than. Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 00:33, October 2, 2012 (UTC) And Hell yeah! Raven is WAY better! (can't believe that didn't occur to me earlier). Sweet! That would be awesome, thankyou and tell your friend I strongly appreciate his assistance (and impressed he's heard of RAZ)! Also which texture roles does he know? (just so we know if we still need someone to wrap the textures onto the models) Also, as for coding, I think right now so long as we have someone who can *Write new units and their stats (using existing Red Alert 3 code is fine) *Write the tech trees/ unit dependencies We should be quite good to go! We could simultaneously start coding, whip up some placeholder models to get the ball rolling, and gradually work on the advanced models and textures in our own time (and uploaded to ModDB as teasers of course) while playtesting and basic bug-fixing occurs. After these fundamentals are laid down, we of course would need *Ensure smooth interraction between units and structures (infantry/vehicles exiting, supply trucks being unloaded correctly *Get a bit of fundamental unit pathing going (Ravens and MiGs auto-returning to Hangar) *Get the 'turret' and 'chassis' parts of the vehicle models to act accordingly *Model and animate infantry (and animate the structures) For advanced attacks like mind-control, attack drones/Cruise-Missiles, and Chrono-Erase, we can always stick in some placeholder attacks for the meantime, and get a second technical coder to have a look at these along with a few other things and sort them out while our main coder continues his/her job as normal coding the other units, structures and rules- and will later add these newly defined attacks him/herself; If necesary, most of that can probably wait for the Second Sequence ;). VolteMetalic (talk) 07:35, October 2, 2012 (UTC): Omg I am such an idiot xD I asked him how did he knew about RAZ, and now I realized he must have knew about it. Its the guy who is working her daily!!!! XDDDD For his skills, he is able to make a models, thought I would make the models instead (no offense Smasher if you are reading this), but he is able to unwrap and apply the textures. But I am not sure if he can make them... maybe you will have to do the textures. I think the coder could do that. Thought I will have to buy him up by making models for his mod ;) Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 08:13, October 2, 2012 (UTC) Ah, so it's SmasherJackson! Yes it would be great to have him onboard! Sounds good to me- and I will try to learn how to do textures over the next few months (till then we can make do with simple-color, unskinned models on our placeholders if this is possible). So it seems we must scout for a coder- any suggestions? VolteMetalic (talk) 21:55, October 2, 2012 (UTC): Unskinned models should be possible to add into the game, just to add something as representation of housecolor. To learn something about textures, ask Jason_Zombolt http://www.moddb.com/members/jason-zombolt . As for coder, I have someone in mind, but I must buy him. And I know how :) Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 23:21, October 2, 2012 (UTC) Oh awesome! Thanks so much for this man! VolteMetalic (talk) 09:48, October 3, 2012 (UTC): :) Now I found out that you are pretty old, 4 years older than me :D I expected you were around my age :D Hazza-the-Fox (talk) 13:22, October 3, 2012 (UTC) Hehe, same with people that meet me in person! (always think I'm way younger!)